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Work to Resume at Burned Bank Tower

New York City lifted a stop-work order on Wednesday at a condemned skyscraper across the street from ground zero that had been in effect since a fire there killed two firefighters in August.

The Department of Buildings removed the order after contractors spent weeks building new fire control systems at the 26-story former Deutsche Bank building.

The building was heavily damaged on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center’s south tower collapsed into it, leaving a trail of toxic debris. The remains of many victims of the terrorist attacks were found there in the past two years, while regulators battled over how to dismantle the building and remove the debris.

The fire on Aug. 18, 2007, believed to have been started by a construction worker’s discarded cigarette, led to a grand jury criminal investigation and shut down work on the building.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the state agency that owns the building, said 300 workers would begin six-day-a-week shifts to clean 19 floors of toxic material.

Schedules call for the building to be dismantled by the end of the year, more than two years after the original date.